Kyrie showed last night why there is indeed a “Big 3” in Cleveland. I don’t think anyone has flown more under the radar this year than Kyrie. Kid blew up last night. That was the best Cavs win of the year. No Lebron, at home, against a western conference playoff team. GRANTED, the bench scored 11 points and Kevin Love (relax, he’s just in a slump) had a -5 +/- . Not great efficiency and you can’t expect that every single night from Kyrie, but damnit was he near-perfect last night.

You can’t look at the stats from this win though. Yes, it was a historic night for Kyrie breaking records and winning games with cold-blooded shots over one of the premier defenders in the NBA. But the videos from Tristan and JR Smith showing the locker room going crazy was what sealed it for me as their best win of the year. David Blatt with an ear to ear grin. Lebron, Kevin Love, JR, Mozgov, everyone getting in on pelting Kyrie with water and whatever they were throwing on him. Wins like that make a team better, and the Cavs are infinitely better after last night.

Lebron was right, these things take time. Lebron round 2 has proven to be a very wise one, with a little less than half the season still to go. Let’s face it folks, this Cavs team is night and day compared to the one that lost to the (god damn mother fucking) Knicks on opening night. Bet that won’t happen again. They were built for June and are in the very early stages of hitting their second-half, late-season stride that they will carry them into the playoffs. Once they’re there, look out. Just need to keep everyone healthy, Lebron needs to play like 5 minutes of the All-Star game, and let Kyrie do his thing. I’m not worried about Kevin Love either. Let him get back to the West coast during the All-Star break, kick it with his family, let him relax. I be willing to bet he comes back to CLE a new man and ready to do gangbusters on the 2nd half of the season.
“What these young bloods have to understand…is that this game has always been, and will always be…about buckets.”

Welp, I thought my Buckeyes stood a chance. Better luck next year after these panel of experts predicted that the Ducks will take home the first ever College Playoff National Championship trophy. Happy Thursday.

I must admit, as a past flat-top aficionado, Shumpert’s got some A+ stuff.

In all seriousness though, I think Lebron (and other leaders: K-Love, Kyrie, etc.) said it was time for Dion to go. But it wasn’t just a personality “rid the cancer from the locker room” move, either. You account for Dion most likely demanding big money next off-season and likely getting it from a team in need of a scorer. Look for OKC to dump him after this season. Another surprising stat that people will overlook as they continue to freak out about every move the Cavs make: Dion had the worst +/- out of anyone on the Cavs team…by 15 points. We’re talking AJ Price, Brendan Haywood, James Jones…all better in that department. That’s a huge blow to the team, and likely the reason they’re barely treading water right now in a miserable eastern conference. When Lebron went down along with Kyrie and Kevin having issues, I think it was a wake-up call that they needed depth, and fast. JR Smith adds some savvy scoring off the bench, while Shumpert adds some defensive depth at the guard position, where the Cavs have been laughably lacking all season. Just a matter of time to see how they all pan out, with Smith’s attitude and Shumpert being injured seemingly often. We’ll see, I guess.

DUDE WHAT THE FUCK? Does K-Love not know that the beard life is the only life? What an idiot! Dude just went from the hottest guy in Cleveland to some schmucky 25 year old entry-level Warehouse District bro who balls at the YMCA in his free time…GOD this is tragic, I’m gonna need a minute.

Out of everyone at ESPN, Stuart Scott was the most memorable since the very beginning of my love for sports. “Boo yah!” “Cool as the other side of the pillow,” among many other catchphrases that woke me up while eating my cereal before school, or put me to sleep at night. Stuart Scott was one of those people who had an undying love for sports who wanted to share that love and give everyone an opportunity to feel that way about games. Now, my parents are huge Cleveland fans, and I can thank them for my “Cleveland fan syndrome,” but outside of that? This guy right here. He made simple sports highlights exciting. He made a kid like me understand the games, understand the importance of certain plays and made me someone who can sit down and watch a random football game when the Browns or Buckeyes aren’t in it. Hell, he’s probably the reason I love watching soccer now too. Not because of his coverage of it, but the way he instilled this love for sports in all of us in our formidable years that made ESPN the juggernaut that it is today, and true sports fans out of all of us. There won’t be another who could fill those kicks, and I don’t think I would want there to be. Stu Scott was one of a kind, and it’s a real kick in the balls that cancer took him from his girls and family at such an early age.

He told us that even if you die, that’s not “losing” to cancer. That it’s about how you live, and living that life with purpose is how you beat cancer. Stu didn’t just beat cancer. He demolished it.